Everglades National Park

HELLO FROM THE EVERGLADES. This is one of the chickee campsites in the park. (As you can see, you just set up your tent on the platform. They are patterned after the structures the Seminole indians built in the area.)

So far, EVERY trip I have made into the Everglades "backcountry" have been naturist trips. I have yet to stay at a backcountry campsite overnight with clothes on!

Everglades backcountry camping is not for the faint-hearted, nor the unprepared. If you have not done real wilderness camping before, this is not the place to learn! You could die here in good weather with a seaworthy boat.

That said, for experienced primitive campers wishing to camp as Nature intended, the Everglades National Park is just shy of Heaven, provided you go between May and October.

From November through April, the backcountry is jam-packed full of textile campers. (It makes sense actually. If you're going to insist on wearing clothes in and around camp, it makes sense to camp when it's cool enough to need them!)

In the warmer months, the campsites are available, and the warm breezes feel nice on bare skin. I have met very few people during these months, usually only passing fishermen (and I've seen some of them fishing nude!).

I have even been visited in my campsite by a park ranger who wanted to check my camping permit. He said nothing about my nudity, and when I brought it (apologizing for not expecting company), he just shrugged it off and said "Don't worry about that," as if it were totally trivial.

Another trip, (August of '99) two rangers stopped my boat when they saw I was headed for one of the island campsites in the park. Rather than give the impression I was doing something wrong by rushing to cover up, I just sat in the boat and waited for them to pull alongside. Again, they wanted to know if I had a permit, which I did. Not a word was said about my nudity.

In February 2000, these same rangers stopped me to check for permit, and recognized me from before. Again, they didn't say a word about nudity.

Several times now, I have spent entire weeks in the park clothing-free, both in camp and while on the water. (Lots of sunscreen and insect repellent are needed if you do this in the summer.)

Despite the above, some common sense must of course be used. Not all the campsites are remote, and many of them are shared sites. All campsites in the park require reservations, and many sites will accomodate 2 or more groups. If you want to camp naturist style, try to pick more remote campsites, and look for sites that only accomodate one party (the reservation book tells how many groups a site can handle) or pick a beach site where there is enough room for groups to have some separation (a sign would be a good idea too).

Otherwise, the retired birdwatchers or church group sharing your campsite may feel very put upon when you lounge around or cook dinner in your birthday suit. Enough negative comments about naturists could cause the Park Service to be a little less friendly toward us.

On the other hand, if you do have to share a campsite, go ahead and ask if the other party minds if you camp naked. I have had to share campsites three times so far, and no one has objected to my going nude. In fact, it has led to good conversations about nudism in general. I have been able to correct some misconceptions, and several individuals even "took the plunge" and tried going nude themselves.

Of course, going during the warmer months will go a long way toward insuring you don't have to worry about offending people anyway. First, you'll pretty much have the place to yourself. Second, anyone you still might meet will understand why you want to be naked!

I have used the following campsites:

Carl Ross Key, East Cape Sable, Hell's Bay Chickee, Graveyard Creek, Highland Beach, Hog Key, Kingston Key, Little Rabbit Key, Lopez River, Mormon Key, New Turkey Key, North River Chickee, Northwest Cape Sable, Pavilion Key, Oyster Bay Chickee, Pearl Bay Chickee, Picnic Key, Plate Creek Chickee, Rabbit Key, Rogers River Bay Chickee, Shark River Chickee, South Joe River Chickee, Sunday Bay Chickee, Sweetwater Bay Chickee, Tiger Key, Turkey Key, and Willy-Willy (in other words, nearly all the campsites in the park).

The park also sells guidebooks of the Everglades backcountry as well as nearby areas such as the Ten Thousand Islands.

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